Worry – our ongoing quest to find something new to worry about
By Duane Hewitt
Our current era has brought with it an almost encyclopedic plethora of new things to worry about. Thank goodness it has, too, because, if anything, we can now scan the worrisome menu of things to fret about and choose something that might only be outdone by the next thing on the list. Worry, it would seem, has moved ahead with everything else in our troubled world.
Take Ebola, for instance. In case you’ve been asleep through the crisis of this cataclysmic disease, it leaves more than distaste in the back of your mouth. Having first made itself known in the ’70s, Ebola is back to wipe us all out: It doesn’t make your death quick or painless either, which makes it particularly suitable to fear. Your innards liquefy, sores and boils cover your body and you’re dead, just not too quickly; roughly 20-odd days from contact. It’s a worrisome little bug. But then, there’s always a new scourge, anyway.
For those who came through the 2012-thing unscathed, the Mayan long-count calendar apparently reset itself. And it’s worth reminding ourselves that we got off the hook because, even though nothing happened, it’s only for the time being. The planet’s magnetic poles have been shifting, it’s a fact. What’s yet to occur, however, is the physical swing of the earth’s axis, which will spin us like a top as the north pole sets in to where the south pole is, and vice-versa. During this melee, you can expect decimating storms and tsunamis of biblical proportions. Though not necessarily an extinction-level-event, many of us are not likely to survive.
Tied in with this somehow, in a category all its own, is a devastating event that’s expected to wipe most of us out. To some, it’s foretold that this will be a great chastisement by God, and that chastisement is likely to come by fire (water has already been done). Should this event occur, billions are likely to die. If you survive, you, along with the rest of the survivors, will be busy burning and burying the dead as you scrounge for something, anything, to eat. By the way, if any of this comes to pass, a heads-up: If it is a chastisement by God, His anger is holy and you best not lay eyes on the firestorm.
Next – Geoengineering: Who among us hasn’t heard about the aluminum and barium being dumped into our atmosphere in response to our warming world? But there’s so much more to this, such as the efforts by the Illuminati to kill the majority of the world’s population (it’s all about world domination, don’t you know). And, as with all conspiracies grounded in fact, this is all part-and-parcel of a Tesla-like program involving beam technology behind the Star Wars initiative that’s set to annihilate much of the general populace. Whatever happens, most of us lose. But then, you really have to wonder, does any of this matter anyway? Apparently, it’s now too late to alter the cataclysmic chain of events that is certain to destroy our world on account of global warming. (Oh, and what you should know is, we’re all responsible.)
There’s more. As a society, we fail miserably when it comes to caring for our sick and elderly. Homelessness is on the upswing – suicide, too. As you continue to age and are busy trying to keep the wolf from the door, you’ve now got something else to worry about – the fact that, after a lifetime of trying so hard, you could end up homeless and starving.
But none of this even touches on war, terrorism, genetically modified foods, a financial system that only functions with everyone being in debt, the fact that a massive volcano under Yellowstone National Park is getting ready to blow, the inevitability of population control, or the prospect of alien invasions. The list is long… there’s just no end to the problems that assail us.
For those of us fortunate enough to be living in the developed world, the very fight-or-flight syndrome of our genetic heritage encourages us to continually adapt to these new threats, all of which are as terrible as can be imagined. That’s the whole point – these evils are real. And this should substantiate the legitimacy of our worry once and for all.
What, me worry? You bet.
Copyright 2015/2016 Duane Hewitt.
